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Minnesota Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom (32), of Finland, makes the save as Nashville Predators left wing Martin Erat (10), of Czech Republic, trips over him during the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)
Author: The Hockey News

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota Wild have reshuffled lines, made a trade and held a players-only meeting to try and get going this season.

Maybe Devin Setoguchi ending his goal-scoring drought on Saturday will do the trick.

Setoguchi's power-play goal at 4:21 of overtime gave Minnesota a 2-1 win over the Nashville Predators and ended the Wild's three-game losing streak.

Setoguchi took a pass from Mikko Koivu and fired a shot past Chris Mason for his first goal of the season and the Wild's 23rd in 11 games.

"This is a clean slate. I don't care what happened the first 10 games or whatever," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "We're not for making excuses, but at the same time, there was no training camp and there was no exhibition. It takes some guys a little time to get going. That's a real thing. Let's hope this is the point where we start to take off."

Paul Gaustad scored for Nashville, which had a four-game winning streak broken.

Gaustad was whistled for a hand-pass penalty on a faceoff at 2:48 of overtime. Gaustad held his hands up in bewilderment as he skated to the penalty box, and coach Barry Trotz yelled at the officials.

"I don't really want to comment on it too much because I'll probably get fined," Gaustad said. "The interpretation of the rule, I thought, is intentional glove play. The drop goes up in the air three feet, I'm on my movement, hits the top of my glove without me trying to do it, and I think they probably should explain the rules a little more clear to us."

Trotz has been on the committee that examined the faceoff rule, and even he was unclear exactly what happened.

"I'm going to get an explanation from the league. For me it was a poor call, a questionable call at a very important time of the game," Trotz said. "I mean, come on. I don't agree with that at all."

Mason—starting in place of Pekka Rinne—turned aside a couple of Wild scoring chances after the penalty, but couldn't stop Setoguchi's shot.

"There were things in my game in the first six or seven games that weren't good," Setoguchi said. "I've had three games in a row now where I've done the right things and got the chances. Any time you can do that and get rewarded it feels good."

Nashville took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period after Craig Smith charged past defenceman Ryan Suter to set up Gaustad's goal.

The Wild invested $196 million to bring in Suter and high-scoring forward Zach Parise during the off-season, but the investment hasn't resulted in more offence yet.

Wild fans booed the home team during a 4-1 loss to Vancouver on Thursday, and were restless on Saturday before Clutterbuck tied the game at 1 by tipping in Suter's shot from the point at 12:59 of the second.

Nashville entered the game allowing only 1.81 goals per game, lowest average in the NHL.

Rinne has turned away 112 of the past 115 shots he faced, but Mason got the nod because the Predators will be playing in Chicago on Sunday.

In his second start of the season—both against Minnesota—Mason stopped 30 shots.

Unfortunately for Nashville, Backstrom was just as good on the other end.

Backstrom, who was pulled early in Thursday's loss, is 19-2-4 in games after being removed for non-injury reasons.

The bounce-back game was needed, especially when the Wild had to kill a four-minute high-sticking power play midway through the third period and another two-minute high-sticking call later in the third.

"You want to get back there," Backstrom said. "Every time you get pulled it's not fun. You take it pretty personal. You want to go back out there and make sure you're not letting your teammates down."

NOTES: Gaustad's goal was his first since last Feb. 19. ... Wild forward Dany Heatley has no points in six games after he scored goals in four of five games. ... The Wild have won just two of nine against Nashville.

John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

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John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

The New York Islanders captain undressed Jay Bouwmeester in the most unusual of ways, but the important thing is he kept the puck. Then he buried it

John Tavares: good at hockey.

The New York Islanders captain pulled off an absolutely stunning series of moves last night, culminating in a laser-shot goal against St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen. But let's get back to his humbling of Olympic gold medallist Jay Bouwmeester, because that's where the real magic happened.

Witness, as Tavares puts his stick behind his back and grabs it with his other hand while still skating and fending off Bouwmeester. Then, since he is a patient boy, Tavares waits and waits and waits before firing one top corner on Allen:

As the soccer folks would say, lovely. New York would go on to beat the Blues 3-2, with Anders Lee scoring the other two goals for the Isles. After struggling to begin the season, New York is now 6-2-2 in its past 10 games. Tavares leads the squad with 21 points through 26 contests.

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Coyotes’ Cunningham alert, awake and joking with teammates, but remains in hospital

There’s still no word as to what exactly caused Coyotes AHL captain Craig Cunningham to collapse on ice, but the 26-year-old was in contact with teammates and cracking jokes earlier this week.

More than two weeks after collapsing on the ice ahead of an AHL game between the Coyotes and Jets AHL affiliates, news has come that Craig Cunningham is starting to get back to his old self.

According to Tucson’s KVOA, Cunningham spoke with two teammates, Brandon Burlon and Christian Fisher, via FaceTime earlier this week, and both said that things are starting to look up for the 26-year-old Cunningham.

Fisher added that it was nice to see Cunningham, the captain of the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate Tucson Roadrunners, smiling again. But he wasn’t just smiling, he was also trying to have a good time with his teammates while hinting that he wants to get back on the ice.

“He was cracking jokes just as if he were here the next day," Fisher told KVOA. "It was pretty funny. He said he wanted us to come pick him up and take him to the rink. He was joking around. Stuff like that.”

The mystery still remains as to what caused Cunningham’s collapse, however. It came just moments before the game was set to start and resulted in medical staff in the building cutting away his equipment in order to attend to him. Cunningham ended up leaving the ice on a stretcher, was transported to hospital and he remained in critical but stable condition for much of the past two weeks.

Still, though, Burlon and Fisher said that there’s no “definitive answer” as to what caused Cunningham’s medical emergency. That’s more than all right with both players, too, so long as Cunningham’s health is starting to look up.

"What we do know is that he is doing well and we are moving forward here," Fisher told KVOA. "Hopefully, he will start the road to recovery now.”

Cunningham has suited up for 319 AHL games over the course of his career, netting 101 goals and 203 points, as well as scoring an additional three goals and eight points in 63 NHL games. He was drafted 97th overall by the Bruins in 2010, but was picked up by Arizona off waivers from Boston during the 2014-15 season.

Holland had been left in Toronto as the Maple Leafs opened a three-game western road trip in late November and has not suited up for the Leafs since Nov. 26. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound forward was a healthy scratch in 17 of the Leafs first 25 games this season.

In eight games, Holland has one assist and a minus-2 rating while averaging 10:43 in ice time a night. Holland is on a one-year, $1.3 million contract this season, and according to CapFriendly, is owed $881,111 for the remainder of the season.

"Peter is a big, solid centerman with good NHL experience," Coyotes general manager John Chayka said in a statement. "We look forward to having him join our team."

Acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in November 2013, the Caledon, Ontario native appeared in 174 games with the Leafs, over parts of four seasons, scoring 25 goals and 63 points.

The 25-year-old also played a role in the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies reaching a seventh game of the conference finals during the 2014 Calder Cup playoffs.

For the Leafs, the move gives general manager Lou Lamoriello another contract spot to work with. Prior to the deal, Toronto had 48 contracts – two shy of the maximum of 50.

Friday’s move gives the Leafs the flexibility to sign goaltender Karri Ramo to a contract for the remainder of the season. The 30-year-old signed a professional tryout with the Marlies on Tuesday and made 33 saves in 3-2 loss to the Utica Comets on Wednesday night.

Since waiving goaltender Jhonas Enroth on Tuesday, and assigning him to the Marlies, the Leafs are looking for a suitable veteran presence behind Frederik Andersen and Ramo could fill the void.

The trade with the Coyotes also gives Lamoriello roster flexibility to activate forward Josh Leivo off non-roster injury reserve. Leivo has yet to play this season due to a lower body injury. The 23-year-old played five games with the Marlies earlier in the season as part of a conditioning assignment, but was deemed not ready to return to NHL action with the Leafs.

Bettman says next season's salary cap could go ‘a couple or so million up'

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Bettman says next season's salary cap could go ‘a couple or so million up'

The NHL could be looking at a $2 million rise in the salary cap for next season, but early projections should be taken with a grain of salt. In December 2015, a potential rise of $3 million was projected. The upper limit increased by only $1.6 million.

It’s still far too soon to tell, but early estimations have it looking like the salary cap could jump up as much as $2 million ahead of the 2017-18 campaign.

Following the NHL’s Board of Governors meetings on Thursday, commissioner Gary Bettman was asked about what the league sees as a potential cap for the upcoming campaign, which, among other things, will see the introduction of the league’s 31st franchise in the Vegas Golden Knights.

Bettman didn’t give an exact figure as to what the cap will look like, but he said there’s the potential for the upper limit to move by roughly $2 million.

"There's always a range, but it's something we're going to have to look at very carefully in terms of how may be best to approach it," Bettman said, according to NHL.com’s Dan Rosen. "The cap could range from where it is now to a couple or so million up, but we're going to all have to focus on what makes most sense going forward.”

Any increase in the cap would be good news for the players, especially pending unrestricted free agents looking to land long-term, big-money deals. St. Louis Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Ben Bishop are two of the biggest names currently slated to hit the open market come July 2017.

Of course, there’s a chance the cap stays flat, which Bettman also indicated, but said he’d prefer to speak with the NHLPA about a possible flat cap before answering questions about it.

Before any GMs with tight cap situations or fans who’re praying their respective teams get some cap breathing room go celebrating, it’s worth noting that early projections for the 2016-17 salary cap saw the upper limit increasing by close to $3 million. That would have seen the cap rise from $71.4 million to $74.5 million, and anyone paying close attention to the financials of the league’s teams is aware that rise in the upper limit didn’t quite come to fruition.

Instead, the cap for the current campaign is $71.4 million, and the rise is mostly thanks to the NHLPA using their five-percent “escalator clause.” Had the players not used the clause, there was some concern the cap could have actually dipped from the past season to the current campaign. Some projections had the cap possibly falling below $70 million for 2016-17.

A rise of $2 million would be only slightly more than the $1.6 million increase from 2015-16 to 2016-17, and it would be one of the smallest increases since the salary cap was introduced in 2005-06. From 2008-09 to 2009-10, the cap rose by only $100,000 and there was no rise in the cap from 2011-12 to 2013-14, with teams allowed to spend to a $60-million limit during the 2012-13 lockout-shortened campaign.